Understanding "Strong science and technology means a strong country", science and technology move towards innovation | Following the footsteps of the General Secretary

On June 24, the National Science and Technology Conference, the National Science and Technology Awards Conference, and the Academicians Conference of the two academies were held in Beijing. General Secretary Xi Jinping awarded the winners of the National Highest Science and Technology Award and delivered an important speech. The General Secretary emphasized that the nation will prosper if science and technology prosper, and the country will be strong if science and technology are strong. China's modernization must be supported by the modernization of science and technology, and the realization of high-quality development must rely on scientific and technological innovation to cultivate new momentum.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has been concerned about self-reliance and self-improvement in high-level science and technology, and has visited many research institutes, universities, high-tech enterprises, and high-tech industrial development zones across the country.

Entering the new era, the construction of a strong country in science and technology is proceeding steadily, and scientific and technological innovation has generated tremendous impetus to promote China's modernization.

"Equipment manufacturing is the backbone of the manufacturing industry. We must increase investment, strengthen research and development, accelerate development, strive to occupy the world's commanding heights, control the technological discourse power, and make my country a major modern equipment manufacturing country." In December 2017, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized this during his inspection of XCMG Group.

Keeping in mind the earnest instructions of the General Secretary, XCMG has focused on technological innovation to break the bottleneck problem. In March this year, the "world's first crane" independently developed by XCMG was successfully hoisted for the first time in Hengshui, Hebei, breaking the record of 1,000-ton crane development created by itself for the seventh time.

One after another of cutting-edge scientific research continues to break records; one after another of engineering research and development demonstrates "Chinese wisdom".

At Shanxi TISCO, a piece of steel is thinner than paper, with a thickness of only 0.015 mm. This is the world's thinnest "hand-torn steel".

In 2017 and 2020, General Secretary Xi Jinping visited Shanxi Taigang twice for inspection and research. The general secretary's earnest words made the company's chief engineer Liao Xi and the R&D team feel a deep sense of responsibility. "We selected elite soldiers and formed seven research groups." Liao Xi said that three months after the general secretary's inspection, the company successfully rolled out 0.015 mm ultra-thin stainless steel foil, a world first. It can be found in aerospace, high-end electronics, new energy fields, and the popular folding screen mobile phones.

On July 6, 2023, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during his visit to NARI Group in Nanjing, Jiangsu that energy security and safety are related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and are "major issues of the country" that cannot be ignored. We must accelerate the iterative upgrade of key technologies and core products and the intelligent empowerment of new technologies to improve the country's energy security and protection capabilities.

The power system is one of the most complex industrial systems, and ensuring its safe and stable operation is a world-class challenge. The various core equipment independently developed by NARI Group has overcome a series of "bottleneck" technologies such as the monitoring system of giant hydropower stations.

From the Yazhou Bay Seed Laboratory in Hainan in the south to Harbin Engineering University in the north, from Shanghai Zhangjiang Science City in the east to the Ningxia Ningmei Coal-to-Oil Project site in the west... General Secretary Xi Jinping's footsteps have traveled from south to north, from east to west, and he has always kept scientific and technological innovation in mind.

China's space station is traveling in space, the "China Sky Eye" is conducting sky surveys, the Beidou navigation system is officially launched, the "Fendouzhe" is diving deep into the seabed ten thousand meters below the surface, the domestically-made large aircraft C919 has been put into commercial operation, and domestically-made large cruise ships have been successfully built... Scientific and technological innovation breakthroughs and innovations in the new era are booming, and new creations are everywhere.

On June 21, the official Weibo account of Chang'e-6 lunar probe posted, "You have a new logistics notification. A mysterious package from the moon is being transported, and the current transportation progress is 70%." This year marks the 20th anniversary of the official launch of China's lunar exploration project. From Chang'e-1 taking full-moon images to Chang'e-6 successfully "digging for treasure" on the far side of the moon, China's lunar exploration project has continuously broken human lunar exploration records over the past 20 years.

In Beijing's Zhongguancun Yizhuang, the high-level autonomous driving demonstration zone has been established for more than three years, and unmanned driving scenarios such as unmanned delivery, unmanned retail, and unmanned patrols have been implemented one after another.

Standing at the Phase IV Terminal of Shanghai Yangshan Port, the world's largest single-unit automated terminal, in an almost empty but extremely busy work site, the technological charm of the terminal's "Chinese Core" is shocking.

According to the Global Innovation Index report released by the World Intellectual Property Organization, China's ranking has rapidly risen from 34th in 2012 to 12th in 2023, entering the ranks of innovative countries.

On March 5, 2024, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized during the deliberation of the Jiangsu delegation at the Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress: "We must firmly grasp the primary task of high-quality development and develop new quality productivity in accordance with local conditions."

In May, the General Secretary visited Shandong and presided over a symposium with enterprises and experts, and once again made new arrangements for the development of new quality productivity. "We must focus on national strategic needs, coordinate the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, cultivate and expand emerging industries, and advance the layout of future industries, fully unleash the integration of the real economy and the digital economy, and develop new quality productivity in accordance with local conditions."

Moving towards "innovation" and pursuing "quality", all parts of the country are promoting new quality productivity in light of their actual conditions.

Jiangsu has made the development of new quality productivity an important focus, accelerating the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation. In terms of innovation output, it exceeded 50% for the first time in the first quarter of this year, reaching 50.2%.

Zhejiang Province has made greater efforts to break through the quality issues in the industrial chain, cultivated a group of leading enterprises in the construction of a quality powerhouse in key industrial chains, and optimized the layout of high-level quality infrastructure platforms.

Anhui has implemented innovation in enterprises, industries and development, transforming the "variables" of scientific and technological innovation into "increments" of high-quality development.

The development of new-quality productivity of Hunan’s state-owned assets and state-owned enterprises has borne fruit in all aspects. The world-class “lighthouse factory” operates day and night, and Zoomlion can produce an excavator every 6 minutes on average.

Xiongan New Area, with the vision and goal of becoming a source of innovation for satellite Internet and commercial aerospace technology, a cluster of high-end manufacturing, a demonstration site for application scenarios and a new highland for industrial ecology, is accelerating the planning of a new track for the aerospace industry.

New quality productivity leads dreams to fly, and the spark of innovation ignites this era. In the new era and new journey, all parts of the country are writing a "new" chapter of high-quality development step by step.

Last November, at the first Belt and Road Science and Technology Exchange Conference which closed in Chongqing, China proposed the International Science and Technology Cooperation Initiative for the first time, advocating and practicing the concept of open, fair, just and non-discriminatory international scientific and technological cooperation, insisting on "science without borders and benefiting all mankind", and working together to build a global science and technology community.

The Deep Time Digital Earth International Big Science Project was officially approved. Jiangsu established an industrial R&D cooperation support mechanism with 10 innovative countries and regions including Finland, Norway and Austria.

Juncao technology was invented by Lin Zhanhui, chief scientist of the National Juncao Engineering Technology Research Center of Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University in the 1980s. The core of the technology is "replacing wood with grass". The technology has spread from Fujian, China to Asia, Africa, Latin America and the South Pacific countries. It has been promoted to more than 100 countries and regions and is praised by local people as "happy grass" and "rich grass".

How to innovate potato germplasm? The Potato Research Institute of Gansu Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Voronezh State Agricultural University of Russia jointly carried out research on key technologies for germplasm innovation and industrialization to achieve complementary advantages. At present, China and Russia have jointly established two scientific research cooperation platforms, the "Silk Road China-Russia Technology Transfer Center" and the "China-Russia Potato Germplasm Innovation and Variety Breeding Joint Laboratory", and have achieved a series of fruitful results.

Going out and bringing in, "Chinese wisdom" is flourishing in the world.

Modern Express/Modern reporter Hu Yumei is Zhong Yin/Text by Liu Chang/Photography by Li Yiting/Poster design